Dancing Lessons
by Animegirl1129
Summary: In which Danny is teaching Grace how to dance and Steve steps in to help.


Dancing Lessons

_**Written in response to cottoncandy_bingo prompt: lead/follow. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.**_

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Grace's first dance is this weekend, just some end of year school party thing, and she is absolutely ecstatic. Danny is less so, because this is yet another step on the ladder that means his baby girl, his Grace, is growing up and those situations always kind of sort of fill him with a mixture of terror and pride. But, there is an upside because she asked him for help and so he gets to be the one to teach her how to dance.

Or, well, he gets to try.

"Ouch!" Grace yelps, trying to hush the sound because it is not the first time her Danno has stepped on her feet in this endeavor.

"Sorry," Danny says, smiling apologetically as they move around the big space they've made in Steve's backyard. There's music playing softly (Danny is pretty sure it's from High School Musical or Hannah Montana or one of those torturous Disney things that Grace has on her iPod) in the early morning sunshine. "It's been a while since I've had to do this."

"Hadn't noticed," Steve quips from his spot on the lanai. He'd been reading a case file when Danny and Grace had shown up to monopolize his backyard with their impromptu dance lesson (like he minds), and he's been trying to get back into it but he's found himself watching them more than following the witness statements. He gives up.

Danny frowns at him, "and just how much slow-dancing have you done, exactly?"

"More than you, apparently."

"Hah. Funny," he looks down at Grace. "Isn't he funny?"

Grace laughs at both of them (because they're kind of arguing tends to be amusing) and squirms away to stop the music because Danny isn't really helping her and her toes are getting sore.

"Can I give it a try?" Steve asks, and he actually seems hesitant about asking because Danny tends to be possessive of his father-daughter moments and Steve can't really blame him. But, Danny nods and Grace nods, and so he sets his file aside and stands, approaching Grace with a smile. "May I have this dance?" He asks politely, because he knows that Danny will beat off any ungentlemanly dance partners (Steve might help) if they are anything less than absolute princes to her.

Grace grins at him and leaves Danny to fix the music. Steve catches her hand and settles the other on her shoulder (height differences are fun) and she grabs his side with her free hand.

"Good," he says. Granted, anyone she's dancing with will be her own height, but she's got this part down, at least. "If you want you can stand on my feet," he suggests, knowing that might help her figure out the rhythm part, "until you get an idea of what we're doing."

"Are you two done conspiring?" Danny asks, waiting for the signal to start the music.

Grace does as told as the music starts, balancing her toes on Steve's bare feet. "Aren't I too big for this?"

"Nope," Steve answers, wiggling his toes under hers and making her giggle, "not at all."

And then they're off. Steve is good at dancing, Danny begrudgingly has to admit. He has no idea why Steve is good at dancing or where he's been practicing these skills because it's not like he's been to a lot of dance-requiring events (so far as Danny's aware). There've been black-tie dinners and fundraisers that they've been obligated to attend by the demands of the governor, and there's been Chin's wedding, but Danny hasn't seen Steve dance at any of those. But he's pretty much waltzing Grace around the yard, so he can't really find it in him to be snarky about Steve's hidden talents because it's kind of amazing to watch the two of them together.

She's off his feet now, letting Steve lead while she follows nearly perfectly (then again, following Steve looks pretty effortless and Danny is already stupidly good at following Steve into all kinds of things - he would know). She giggles at a high point in the song when Steve twirls her around in big circles before he reels her back in and they continue on with the dance like they never stopped.

Steve dances them down to the edge of the water, moving them around in the damp sand just as fluidly as on the grass and then back up the porch and just as the song is about to end, he spins Grace out again, stopping her just in front of Danny.

"Show off," Danny shakes his head, but the smile on his face kind of takes the power out of the comment.

Grace doubles back to give Steve a hug for his awesome dancing lesson and then hugs her Danno, too, because he can never have enough hugs. "You should let Uncle Steve show you, too, Danno" she says. And ouch, his dancing isn't that bad, is it?

Steve chokes on the laugh he tries to hide and claps Danny on the shoulder. "Yeah, c'mon, Danno."

Danny wants to say no (even though he also kind of doesn't) but Grace is giving him puppy dog eyes and those are really hard to say 'no' to. "You know what? Fine."

Grace grins and takes control of the music. Steve looks kind of surprised, like he didn't think Danny would actually rise to the challenge, but he's not backing down, either, so...

"Lemme guess. You lead, I follow?"

"Sure," Steve grins, looking a little awkward and anxious as he moves to settle his hands where they need to go. One on his waist, because he can actually reach on Danny's (slightly) taller frame, and he fumbles with the other because he needs to catch it but Danny's still talking with it, even though Steve isn't sure what he's saying at the moment.

Finally, though, the music starts and Danny's hand lands on his shoulder and the other one finally slows down enough for Steve to grab it. "You don't get to stand on my feet," he says (which earns a snort of a laugh from his partner), even as he sticks his right foot between Danny's, making him match the placement and then they're moving.

"No," Steve's saying, though, because Danny's trying to pull him in the wrong direction, and that's just not going to work. "You're following, remember?"

"What? I am following," Danny protests, only no, he is not.

"Following means that you _follow_ me. Not move in the opposite direction."

Danny frowns and tries to correct, even though he doesn't know what he's doing wrong, but he can't resist the teasing comments, either. "I think I'm paranoid about following you. It tends to get me shot at or almost blown up a lot."

"Now who's the funny one," Steve rolls his eyes. "All the complaining and yet you still follow me."

"Since you still refuse to wait for any sort of back-up that isn't me, it's either follow or let you get shot at and blown up alone. And we can't have that, can we?"

"I guess not."

"Glad we can agree."

A few beats pass and Steve leans in a little closer, whispering words against Danny's ear because he's picked up on something fishy about this whole dancing lesson thing. "How many kids in Grace's class do you actually think know how to waltz?"

"None," Danny says, looking pleased with himself. "Exactly none. So, no boys will be dancing with my daughter. See how that works?"

Steve laughs, shakes his head, "Yeah, Danno, you're devious."

"'Devious,' Devious? Really? You say that like I'm staging a coup, Steven. Not like I'm safeguarding my daughter from the likes of manipulative, scheming, plotting _boys._" He says 'boys' like it's some sort of disease, but Steve's kind of used to that by now. He's not sure how Danny is going to survive when Grace is a teenager and actively interested in them. He doesn't think it will be pretty.

Talking seems to have kept Danny in line, though, he's been following pretty nicely and no one has stepped on anyone's toes. It's progress.

But they've danced to the water and back and now they're close enough to Grace that Steve feels safe in suggesting and alternative to Danny's master plan. "Or maybe she'll just teach them." He says, quickly ducking his way out of the line of fire by letting go of a momentarily stunned Danny and catching Grace's hand again, spinning her back to him as the song changes.

"Hey! You're not funny!"


End file.
